Russian parliamentarians have raised fears that recent draft laws on information will result in the state creating digital dossiers on private individuals. A government spokesman has already played down those fears, saying there will be no electronic profiles of Russian citizens and all other personal data will be well protected. However, it is precisely this aspect that security experts at InfoWatch say poses the greatest threat – the accumulation of huge quantities of private records is like a time bomb just waiting to detonate. If that information is not protected effectively, that bomb will eventually explode.
The Russian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications has had to react to a variety of concerns voiced by parliamentary deputies and members of the public. Those fears have been sparked by several legislative initiatives:
Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data; Debate of the draft bills “On personal data” and “On information, information technology and information protection”; The creation of systems for the personal registration of the population.A number of deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have voiced their concern that the state is accumulating data on its citizens, which will lead to the creation of electronic dossiers. The threat is by no means imaginary considering the fact that the state not only has information on the private lives of ordinary Russians but also biometric data (fingerprints and, in some cases, eye scans).
The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications has hurried to reassure legislators that nobody intends to create digital portraits of Russian citizens, RosBusinessConsulting reported. The ministry's press service stated that the ministry was categorically against the use of data for such purposes and that the collection and use of all personal data was governed by strict rules.
According to ministry representatives, the bills that have passed the first reading in parliament do not envisage the use of social titles or lifelong identification numbers. The Unified State Population Register will contain the surname, name, patronymic name, and date and place of birth of all Russian citizens and citizens of other countries temporarily residing in Russia. The register will include references to other databases such as the pension fund or tax authorities where other personal information will be stored separately. But the population register will only have index numbers relating to the data held on each citizen that will be randomly generated and used solely for revising and updating data.
The ministry stressed that access to the data will be strictly limited, and will be stored in uncoordinated information systems. However, according to data security experts, this is the exactly where the greatest risks appear.
“The accumulation of huge amounts of data is in itself dangerous — any leak can lead to disaster. To ensure reliable protection it is necessary not only to restrict access rights and prevent unsanctioned access but also to suppress leaks of sensitive information. That means protecting against insiders. Otherwise, the state is creating an information time bomb, and sooner or later it is going to explode,” maintains Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
